The first thing that is blindingly obvious is the cast. What a cast! Montant, Piccoli, Reggiani and Depardieu in the same movie, each one with a main role - Montant being the central part like, I would dare to compare, Sinatra in the Rat Pack. A true ensemble movie.
Sautet manages perfectly to direct them and the play is brilliant - also by the actress, who plays support characters, but no minor ones, as the feminine characters are all strong and independent, far from your average housewife.
The movie, with this universal themes: friendship and middle life crisis, sounds still contemporary. I think the fact Sautet chooses to show modern women helps a lot. Sautet tells the twist and turn of a 3 long-standing friends, in their fifties, and their group of friends, and through that the evolution of their relationship in this microcosm but also to their own evolution, to what they were and what they were dreaming, standing for when they were young. He manages to do so and delivers a movie full of sincerity, showing good and bad, up and down.
A great movie, still today.
The movie, with this universal themes: friendship and middle life crisis, sounds still contemporary. I think the fact Sautet chooses to show modern women helps a lot. Sautet tells the twist and turn of a 3 long-standing friends, in their fifties, and their group of friends, and through that the evolution of their relationship in this microcosm but also to their own evolution, to what they were and what they were dreaming, standing for when they were young. He manages to do so and delivers a movie full of sincerity, showing good and bad, up and down.
A great movie, still today.